Mechanical coding and sorting device



Aug. 25, 1959 J. RABINOW ET AL 2,901,089

MECHANICAL CODING AND SORTIG DEVICE Filed MaICh 5, 1957 I 5 Sheets-Sheet l @o fg z.

C a *Y Y n A M 1 fm'i- Jamas /QQl/M "l INVENTORS Jacob Rab/How Law/"ence d. Kam/77 Aug. 25, 1959 .1. RABlNow ET AL MECHANICAL CCDINC AND sCRTING DEVICE 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 5, 1957 Lawrence J. Komm ATTORNEY J. RABINOW ET AL MECHANICAL CODING AND SORTING DEVICE Aug. 25? 1959 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed March 5, 1957 IN1/ Emma Jacob Rab/now Lawrence J. Kamm A TZ'QRNE Y Allg 25, 1959 J. RABlNow ET AL 2,901,089

MECHANICAL CODING AND SORTING DEVICE Filed March 5, 1957 v 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTORS .(-3 jacob Rab/70W Law/"ence d. Komm A ttor/7 eg Aug. 25, 1959 J. RABlNow ET AL MECHANICAL comme AND soRTING DEVICE 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed March 5, 1957 INVENTORS Jacob Rab/now BY Lawrence J. Kamm Maw. .ZKM

A TTQHNEY United States Patent O MECHANICAL GODIN@ AND SOR'IING DEVICE Jacob Rabinow, Takoma Park, Md., and Lawrence J. Kamm, San Diego, Calif.; said Rabinow assigner of fifteen percent to Mar; l... Lihman, Vienna, Va.

Application March 5, i957, Serial No. 644,017

13 Ciaims. (Cl. 193-38) This invention relates to the art of mechanical coding for conveyor type sortens and similar devices wherein a number of conveying stations are provided into which predetermined ones of a number of articles conveyed are required to be deposited. A code designation or number is associated with each conveyed article, which designates the station to which the conveyed article is to be carried and deposited.

Many means of coding a conveyor belt have been devised wherein an article may be transmitted to the proper destination and deposited at that destination. Such coding means are generally of two types: One, wherein the code is physically attached to the article or to the conveyor component carrying the article and the other wherein the coding is done separately in a device which is an analog of the sorting machine and which informs the sorting machine of the appropriate time and place to deposit the article. While the mechanical coding means of the present invention are intended primarily for a machine of the rst type, that is, one wherein the code designation travels with the article to be sorted, the coding means provided herein may also be used for the second type as an independent coding device.

Prior art in connection with mechanical trip mechanisms or code designating devices travelling on conveyor belt sorters have been of the type wherein the mechanical device must, of necessity, test the coincidence between itself and a pocket, or set up cams, or perform some other action at each possible designation, whether the code is matched to that designation or not. According to the present invention, a binary code is employed using mechanical elements, each element having two positions, so that with N elements it is possible to describe 2N possibilities of sorting. Instead of a binary, it is, of course, possible to use a trinary radix or any other radix, but by way of example the present invention will be described with a binary sorting base.

It is a major object of the invention to provide, in a mechanical coding and sorting device for conveyers, a coding device which senses all possible destinations, but in which no mechanical action of the actual sensing elements occurs until the correct destination is located. This is a very great advantage, since the sensing elements of prior art devices have required some motion, of the mechanical sensing element at each possible location, and in a typical large scale conveyer system there may be hundreds or thousands of such locations, with consequent rapid wear and deterioration of the sensing elements.

Another object is to provide a conveyer system having no practical limitations as to the number of units conveyed or the number of possible sensing stations, all in a relatively compact unitary device.

Still another object is to provide, in a conveyer sorting device having a large number of conveyer components, each carrying an article to be deposited at a given location, an improved and simplified actuating device for each conveyer component, whereby the article may beV deposited at the desired station.

Patented Aug. 25, 1959 AY major object of the invention is also to provide an improved and simplified coding system capable of being readily set to any desired code designation at each station.

The specific nature of the invention as well as other objects and advantages thereof will clearly appear from a description of a preferred embodiment as shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. l is a schematic side elevation of a conveyor embodying the invention;

Fig. 2 is a sectional side elevation of a portion of a tray, showing the individual compartments and closure means;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken on line 33 of Fig. 4, through the center of a tray;

Fig. 4 is a plan view of a portion of the conveyor, showing the trays and coding wheels;

Fig. 5 is a view, partly in section, of the coding wheels and coding tracks in non-matching position;

Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 5, but showing the matching condition of the coding device;

Fig. 7 is a `sectional view taken on line '7 7 of Fig. 3, showing the compartment closure device in the unlatched position;

Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. 7, but showing the latched position;

Fig. 9 is an enlarged view of the latching mechanism;

Fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of the latch position sensing and relatching device;

Fig. 1l is a sectional view Showing the code and wheel construction;

Fig. 12 is a longitudinal elevation of the code wheel resetting mechanism;

Fig. 13 is a longitudinal elevation of the code wheel resetting mechanism;

Fig. 14 is a plan view of the coding track sections; and

Fig. l5 is a perspective view of a portion of a tray.

Referring to Fig. l, the conveyor comprises a series of similar trays 2 linked together by means of a parallelogram linkage 3 so that even when the trays are moving from one level to another around a corner in the vertical plane, the trays will still be held level and not spill their contents, as will be readily apparent from the drawing. Each tray is provided with a roller shaft which furnishes one connection and pivot point for the parallelogram 3, there being one roller on each side of each tray as best seen in Fig. 3. The rollers 4 run on tracks 6, at the ends of which are provided curved track portions on which the rollers 4 rest and by which they are guided while moving from one level to another as shown in Fig. l. On the horizontal rungs the trays are further supported by a series of coding rollers generally designated by reference character 29, which will be explained.

Any suitable means may be employed for imparting uniform motion to the conveyor system, one form being indicated by chain drive 8 provided with lugs 9 which engage the respective trays to impart motion to the conveyor system in the direction shown by the arrow. Any suitable motor drive for the chain belt may be employed.

Each individual tray 2 is divided into a number of separate pockets lla as shown in Figs. 2 and l5, by means of sheet metal separators l2. The pockets shown are shaped and dimensioned to accommodate individual pieces of letter mail and the machine will be described in connection with the process of sorting such pieces of mail into l-a number of stations, respectively designated at 13 in Fig. l. However, it will be apparent that articles of any suitable size and shape may be sorted in the same manner, the pockets being properly designed to accommodate such articles.

A bottom closure 14 mounted on pivot rod 16 is provided for each pocket, whereby a piece of mail 17a dropped into a pocket will be retained therein as long as closure 14 is in the position shown in the right-hand pocket 11a in Fig. 2. If pivot -rod 16 is rotated counterclockwise 90 as shown in the left pocket 11b, Fig. 2, then the piece of mail will drop out through the bottom of the pocket as indicated at 17b. It is therefore apparent that if means `are provided for rotating closure 14 at the proper station, the letter will drop ont of the pocket at that station and into receiver 13. The means for doing this will now be described.

Each tray 2 is composed of side walls 18, 18 (Fig. 3) and transverse wall portions 12 formed as shown to provide a hollow wall for each pocket section, and attached to side pieces 18 of the tray 2 by welding or in any other suitable fashion. Extending through each of the hollow wall portions thus formed is a code shaft 19 which passes at one end through a circular aperture in wall 18', which may be reinforced as shown at 21 to form a bearing plate to permit rotation of shaft 19. The shaft terminates at this end in a roller 22 supported on a track portion 23 at the horizontal stretches of the conveyor. The other end of code shaft 19 extends through a slot 24 in side Wall 18, the slot being slightly wider than the diameter of shaft 19 and extending vertically for a suicient distance to permit this end of shaft 19 a limited amount of vertical motion with respect to side wall 18. At this end (the left end as shown in Fig. 3) the shaft extends for a considerable distance beyond the tray and carries a Inumber of elements which will be described in the order in which they extend away from the tray in Figs. 3, and 6. 'Ihe first of these iselement 26, which controls the closing and opening of pocket closure 14; second is roller 27, corresponding to roller 22, which moves `over fa grooved track section 28 to maintain the lateral position of shaft 19 and its associated elements; and last there is a series of coding wheels 29, riding upon a corresponding series of reversible track sections 31, each section having a raised portion and a depressed portion, so that if 'at least one of the code wheels 29 is riding upon a raised portion of its track section, as shown at 30 in Fig. 5, then shaft 19 will be in the upper position shown in Fig. 5, but if all of the wheels find themselves over depressed portions of their corresponding track sections, then shaft 19 will drop down by an amount corresponding to the depression in the track section as shown in Fig. 6, to thereby conditionthe closure unlatching device for operation. The motion of the shaft downward lowers the element 26, which now has its lower extremity 33 opposite a trip pawl 34, which is now in the path of extremity 33 so that the continued motion of the conveyor causes extremity 33 to impinge upon paw1 34 as shown in Figs. 6 and 7, and thus swing from the position shown in Fig. 8 into that shown in Fig. 7.

Fig. 8 shows the normal closed position of the pocket closure, wherein shaft 16 is held in the position shown vfor the right-hand pocket in Fig. 2. It is restrained in this position by an arm 36 which is keyed to shaft 16, and which carries at its extremity Ia pin 37, this pin being retained in a shallow groove 38 formed in the extremity 33 of element 26, as shown in Fig. 8. However, when element 26 is rotated out of the position shown due to its contact with paw1 34, it releases pin 37, which swings downwardly by gravity, or under the action of a spring if desired, as shown in Fig. 7, to release the door closure and permit the letter to drop into the selected receiver. As soon as element 26 passes pawl 34, it is returned to its normal centered position by spring 39. However, arm 36 and pocket closure 14 remain in the vertical open pocket position until closed again. This may be done by utilizing the motion of the tray. As

*shown in Fig. 3, the right-hand end of shaft 16, to which the closure 14 and arm 36 are'xed, carries a resetting lever 41, shown in detail in Fig. 10. When the pocket is open, as shown in the two right-hand pockets of Fig. l0, one end of resetting lever 41 projects so as to engage electrical contact 42 as the tray moves to the left in Fig. 10. This closes an electric circuit to solenoid 43; its switch 44 is also closed. Energization of solenoid 43 causes trip 46 to move from the inactive position shown in full lines into the active position in dotted lines, where it protrudes into the path of the downwardly projecting portion of resetting lever 41 and causes the shaft 16 to rotate counterclockwise, which carries closure 14 into the closed position and also carries arm 36 back into the latched position shown in Fig. 8. Note that as arm- 36 rotates counter-clockwise from its dropped position, pin 37 engages the sloping cant surface 48 (Fig. 8 or 9) to iirst push arm 33 out of the way against the action of spring 39, until the pin clears the cam surface 48, after which the arm 33 returns to the position shown in Fig. 8 and the closure is again latched and ready to hold mail. The switch 4411, which controls solenoid 43, is preferably controlled by the operation of dropping a letter into the pocket by means which are not part of the present invention. This is desirable because there are usually more pockets available than any single operator can lill, and the operator can thus tell, either by inspection or by a suitable electrical signal, which pockets are empty and thus available for the reception of a letter. Of course, the pockets could immediately be closed by a lixed projection similar to 46, as soon as the letters have been dropped, but in this case it would be more diflicult for the operator Who is filling the pockets to know which pockets are empty.

In some cases, it may be desirable to run the tray in the opposite direction from the normal running direction, and it will be apparent that for this situation a second trip element, schematically shown in 51 in Fig. 10, may be provided, which may either be a fixed element or controlled by a solenoid similar to solenoid 43, and which Will strike the upper portion of lever 41 upon retrograde movement of the tray to elfect closure in the same manner as above described.

After the above operation has been performed and the pocket emptied of its contents, it is in general desired to reset the wheels to another code combination when another piece of mail is deposited in the pocket. It should be noted that each of the rollers 29 is provided with an internal channel 52 which holds an annular spiral garter spring 53 resting in a groove 54 cut into shaft 19. For each roller 29 there are two such grooves 52a and 54b respectively, as shown in Fig. 5. When the roller 29 is sitting in groove 54a, this can arbitrarily be said to correspond to binary zero position, and when a roller is sitting in its groove 5412, this will correspond to the binary 1 position. The code setting of the plurality of rollers on shaft 19 is therefore determined by the respective grooves in which the individual rollers sit. They can be changed from one position to the other by merely pushing them laxially along the shaft 19 into the desired groove position. After a piece of mail has been deposited into its proper pocket, it is obviously desirable to reset the Wheels to another code number corresponding to another destination for the next piece of mail which is placed into the pocket. This can be accomplished in various ways, one of which is shown in Figs. 12 and 13. Fig. 12 shows a mechanism for rst resetting all of the wheels to zero. At a suitable station in the conveyer, a section is provided where there is no coding track portion 31, but instead a zero resetting yoke 55 is provided as shown in Fig. 12'. At this position the shaft 14 is supported on roller 27 by means of a raised track portion 56 in channel 28. A yoke 57 having a plurality of lingers 58 and 59 extends transversely across the path of the wheels so that the wheels may pass between the fingers 58 and 59. The yoke is ordinarily in the extreme lefthand position shown in dotted lines at 61. At the moment when the wheels pass opposite the yoke, a contact is closed by any suitable switching means (not shown) to energize solenoid y63 to cause the yoke to move in the direction of the arrow (to the left) and thus shove all of the rollers 29 into the left-hand or binary zero position. The rollers are now ready to be set to the coded number value. This is accomplished by a similar arrangement as shown in Fig. 13, which has, however, an individual solenoid 56, 57, etc., for each wheel. As the wheels pass between the iingers S9, 71, 72, etc., the solenoids corresponding to those binary orders which it is desired to energize from the zero position into the one position are actuated to 4move the corresponding ngers and thus move the selected wheels from their binary zero positions into the selected binary one positions according to the selected code. This is done by the operator pressing a number of keys corresponding to the selected binary num-ber, or alternatively may be done by automatic mechanism which is not a part of the present invention.

Fig. l4 shows the arrangement of track sections 30I to produce a desired code setting. The track sections may obviously be made in a number of ways, but a prefer-red arrangement is to use short track sections 30, which may be die-cast or of any other suitable construction. All of the track sections 30 are identical and have diagonally abutting ends as shown at 76, so as to provide. no appreciable crack or break for the rollers 49 as they pass between adjacent track sections. Each track section has a raised portion 77 which is ilush with the normal track face, and a depressedportion 78 as best shown in Fig. 5, there being a smooth ramp at each end of the depressed portion to permit the wheel or roller 29 to ride smoothly from the upper level to the lower level. Each track section 30 is provided with two or more downwardly protruding pins 79, as shown in Figs. 5 and 6, which are received in suitable drilled holes in channel member 30 which supports the track portions, to position the track Sections as shown in Fig. 14. Pins 79 rit loosely into the corresponding apertures in channel member 30 and may be removed by hand, so that they may be readily inserted with the depression either on the right or on the left-hand side to determine Whether the setting of the track section at that particular position is a binary zero or a binary one. It will be apparent that the coding corresponding to any desired pocket or receptacle can readily be changed as desired by merely lifting out the track sections and replacing them in the correct positions corresponding to the desired code number. When the code setting of the rollers 29 does not correspond to the code numbers to which the track sections have been set, then at least one roller will be in contact with the upper surface 77 of at least one track section, thus keeping shaft 19 in the upper position as shown in Fig. 5. When the rollers reach a track section which has been set to a value corresponding to the value to which the roller wheels have been set, as shown in Fig. 6, then all of the rollers will be received in the dep-ressions 78, and shaft 19 will assume the position shown in Fig. 6, as previously explained. It should be noted that wheel 27 is not a part of the coding system. This wheel serves the purpose of `keeping the roller shaft 19 in the correct axial position as shown in Figs. 5 and 6, by riding in locator channel 28. At both `sections of the conveyor where the two setting mechanisms shown in Figs. l2 and 13 are employed, there is no track section 31 to support the rollers 29; therefore at these points a filler strip 56 or 81 is inserted into channel 28, and at these points roller 27 serves also to keep shaft 19 in its upper posit-ion, so that it rides Valong smoothly in the same plane except fofr the one point in its travel where it meets the correct code combination of track units and therefore is depressed 4as shown in Fig. 6. This serves to minimize wear and tear on the apparatus, as will be readily apparent.

It will thus be apparent that a system has been provided which meets all of the objects of the invention in a simple and elfective manner. It will be obvious to those versed in therart of conveyor mechanisms that other means of moving the pockets may be employed and also that the pockets need not necessarily be arranged in groups like those shown above. It may be preferable to have each pocket an independent entity ilexibly linked to others, and various changes may be made in detail. It will be noted that the novel code mechanism provides a simple mechanical arrangement of Wheels which roll smoothly over a track and only dip when coincidence is obtained. It will also be apparent that other means than garter springs may be used as detent mechanisms for the wheels. These wheels represent a memory device capable of mechanically storing a code number, While the track sections represent a coincidence device capable of recognizing the stored number. It will also be evident that instead of wheels, sliding runners could be employed running on smooth, well-lubricated tracks, and also that the various elements could be reversed and rearranged, within the skill of any competent mechanical designer. It will also be obvious that instead of the binary positionirig system shown a coding system having any other desired radix could be employed. However, a binary system appears to be the simplest both to describe and to construct and at present the preferred embodiment.

it will be apparent that the embodiments shown are only exemplary and that various modifications can be made in construction and arrangement within the scope of our invention as dened in the appended claims.

We claim:

l. A mechanical coding device comprising a support, a plurality of contact elements on said support, each element being positionally settable on said support, means for retaining each element in anyone of said settable positions on said support to which it is set, means defining a surface, means for moving said support along and biased toward said surface with at least some of said elements in contact therewith, said surface containing a number of groups of depressions corresponding to possible positions of said contact elements, whereby upon coincidence of a` group of depressions and a selected pattern of contact elements said support moves in a direction toward said surface, an operating device and means actuated by motion of said support toward said surface to actuate said operating device.

2. The invention according to claim l, said support being a shaft, and said contact elements being a plurality of wheels axially slidable on said shaft.

3. The invention according to claim l, in combination with a conveyor sorting means having a plurality of article carrying means, there being one such shaft associated with each of said last means, and article control means actuated by motion of said shaft toward said surface.

4. The invention according to claim l, said means deiining -a surface comprising a number of tracks, each track comprising a number of positionally adjustable elements, each element having at least one depression and means for adjusting -the position of said elements to form a desired pattern of depressions.

5. A mechanical coding device comprising a plurality of tracks, each having a plurality of raised portions and a plurality lof depressed portions located at different positions along said tracks, a plurality of code elements movable along respective ones of said tracks and in contact therewith, common mounting means supporting said code elements for common movement together, means for moving said code elements together along their respective tracks, an operating device, land means responsive to common movement of all said code elements into depressed portions of their respective tracks to actuate said operating device.

6. The invention according to claim 5, and an object carrying unit movable with said code elements along said tracks, an object ejecting means for said unit, actuating means for said object ejecting means, said actuating means being operated by said operating device, whereby said common movement of said code elements into depressed track portions is effective to cause ejection of an object from said conveying unit.

7. Article conveying means comprising a plurality of serially connected articulated units and track means supporting said units for movement therealong, each said unit comprising a plurality of `separate article holding sub-units, an ejection control means for each said subunit for ejecting an article, said last means being operable to cause ejection of a contained article from ythe associated sub-unit, latch means normally latching said control means against operation, normally ineffective .trip means located along the path of movement of said units for releasing said latch means, individual code means for each said sub-unit settable to dierent code combination, code responsive means `associated with said ytrip means and uniquely responsive to a selected code combination to cause said trip means to become effective.

8. The invention according to claim 7, said ejection control means comprising a door at the bottom of each sub-unit operable to release a contained article by gravity and normally held in closed position by said latch means, door reclosing means operably connected to each said door, and reclosure actuating means fixed with respect to said track means for reclosing an open door by motion of its sub-unit along the track means.

9. A coding track for conveyors comprising a plurality of parallel track lines, each track line comprising a plurality of longitudinally extending track sections, each track section having an exposed face for contacting a track riding element and having a depressed longitudinally extending track surface portion extending for a portion of its length, the transverse extent of said depressed portion extending for a portion only of its width along one side only of the track face, there being a raised portion extending along the other side of the track face.

l0. The invention according to claim 9, and supporting means for said track line including individual mounting means for selectively mounting each said section on said supporting means with the depressed portion o either transverse side of the track face. Y

ll. Article conveying means comprising a plurality of individual object-conveying units; individual objectdisposal means for each of said units; an operating means for each object-disposal means operable to actuate disposal of an object carried in the associated unit at a selected station in the path of the conveying means, said operating meanscomprising a series of track-riding elements mounted on a common support and a track portion associated with, each of said series of elements at each station, each said element being transversely displaceable along said support into at least two alternative positions, and each said track portion having at least one longitudinally extending depressed portion corresponding to at least one of the possible alternative transverse positions of said element, whereby when all the depressed portions at a given station correspond to all the transverse positions of the respective associated series of elements, said support is correspondingly depressed to actuate said-operating means to cause disposal of an object atsaid station.

l2. The invention according to claim 1l, said trackriding elements being wheels, and said support being a shaft upon which said wheels are mounted.

13. A mechanical coding device comprising a rst set of code index elements mounted on a common support for common motion, means for setting each of said elements to any one of a plurality of code index positions, complementary sets of second code responsive elements, said last sets extending in the direction of motion of said rst elements, said rst and second elements being biased into contact with each other to maintain a predetermined relative position of said common support transverse to the direction of motion when the code settings of the first set and the adjacent set of complementary elements are mismatched, means for moving said rst set along said complementary sets in succession, the index elements of one set having projections and the corresponding elements of the second set having indentations into which said projections can lit when there is correspondence between the settings of the elements of the rst set and of the second set to change said relative position of said first and second sets as a whole upon the occurrence of a match between any two respective sets.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,518,951 Andrus Dec. 9, 1924 1,556,343 Philips Oct. 6, 1925 2,803,333 Freeman Aug. 20, 1957 2,804,965 Anderson Sept. 3, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 751,931 Great Britain July 4, 1956 

